Günter Dinhobl (Hrsg.): Sonderband 7. Eisenbahn/Kultur – Railway/Culture (2004)
IV. Die Eisenbahn-Technik / Railway-technics - Manfred E. A. Schmutzer: Iron Rules Rule Iron Rails. Cultures and Their Technologies
number of rails, to permit arbitrary speeds would require an infinite number of rails, which is, of course, impossible. This insight was supported by empirical evidence. Various experiments promoting public use of railroads ended in exuberant chaos. Early suggestions put forward to liberalize the restrictive system of railroads by various technologies were conceived for advancing democracy and free trade. A project suggested by R. L. Edgeworth in England in 1 80214 15 intended to equip public roads with rails at least in the neighborhood of larger cities where massive transport occured. One argument of the proposal was the reduced friction of rail movement. The improvement was to be provided by placing ordinary road vehicles on wheelchairs running on rails being pulled however by the same horses which had drawn the carriages in the first place.1' Edgeworth realized the above mentioned impossibility of different velocities on a single pair of rails and, to mend this deficiency, suggested four parallel pairs of rails which would allow a differentiation between slow bulk transport and fast personal traffic in both directions. But on each of the four rails velocity had to be uniform. Edgeworth’s conception found as little response as other similar ones. The lack of acceptance seems to indicate a deep seated desire for individual liberty of mobility at the time. This longing was in accord with the contemporaneous quest for political and economic independence and hence as much ideologically as rationally motivated. Contrary to the individualistic spirit of the age (Zeitgeist), the railway demanded the realization of an opposite mode of organization. Railway technology was based on a basic contradiction of the “Zeitgeist“, which carried individualism and free enterprise on its banner. Iron Rules Rule Iron Rails. Cultures and Their Technologies Adapting the Social Backdrop The potential conflict finally ceased when a nationwide structure satisfied the demands of this unified technology, i.e. a hierarchical and bureaucratic pattern of organi14 Schivelbusch, Wolfgang: Geschichte der Eisenbahnreise. Zur Industrialisierung von Raum und Zeit im 19. Jahrhundert. München-Wien 1977. 15 The concept is in some respects comparable to present attempts experimenting with concepts of making various means of public transport, busses, streetcars and railways compatible with each other. 311
